[Archived] Watford Preview

[Tom]

Great win

I said during the game Rhodes needs to adapt a bit at times and I stand by it but my word the lad can finish

Dann was easily our best player and a section of our fans are still morons

[Bob Dewhurst]

This is another topic, but the booing of Danny Murphy today was disgraceful. I was in the Darwen End and a large percentage of those booing were from there. "Best rovers fans?" Pathetic

[Salgado Is A Hero]

Cryer said the other day that Dann had been our best performing player this season.

Glad he's playing well.

Delighted with the win today, and the clean sheet......only 2 points off Leicester in 2nd.

Bring on Palace.....but they will possibly have the new manager effect....then again a 2-1 win away at Leicester shows they might not need it.

[Dunnfc]

Keep on going shows. Fitness and confidence returning well done black

[DE.]

Makes you wonder what Black was doing during Kean's tenure. He's clearly seen the issues we have, why wasn't he trying to solve them before Kean resigned? Or was his advice just being ignored by bald?

[Eddie]

More to the point, why is an £8m striker, who has a history of taking penalties, allowing a journeyman winger to bully him off the penalty? The lad clearly needs to have a bit more about him personally, he's the main man and should act like it. Imagine someone trying to do that to Shearer.

That said, he came through for us again. But he needs to puff his chest out and start acting like the star player that we need him to be.

Agreed, he should have held onto it, but Kazim-Richards probably has the bigger personality and certainly has more experience, so he may have felt that he had to let the more senior player take it.

This sort of thing shouldn't be up for discussion, there should be a designated penalty taker and an order that factors in injuries and substitutions. Through all of that I cannot see how Rhodes shouldn't be the clear choice, he has a good record, he's the 'star' man and striker and he is one of the most likely to be on the pitch whenever we are awarded a penalty. It should be his job to lose and hopefully he will be taking the next one.

[BuckyRover]

Only just managed to check the scores. What a day! Last minute win for us and a tubbing for Burnley. Brilliant!

Maybe those at the matches can verify but it seems like Black has been concentrating on tightening up at the back. That's the way we need to go.

Of course. Tighten up at the back and the wins take care of themselves.

There is now the very real possibility that in a month or so we could be wishing that Black was still in charge. Hope not

[Salgado Is A Hero]

Well hopefully this just forces us to work out a set penalty taking list.

I'd still like Dunn first I think, then Rhodes, then whoever is good at them in training.

[Tom]

How do we know that CKR isn't the designated penalty taker but Rhodes wanted it himself rather than the other way?

[Sparky Marky]

Cryer said the other day that Dann had been our best performing player this season.

Must be a shocker for you that. You've spent last couple of months saying he was a liability. You and many others.

[dazmaz]

How do we know that CKR isn't the designated penalty taker but Rhodes wanted it himself rather than the other way?

I would say there is no designated taker, shown very much by the arguement the two had for and and Rhodes reaction after CKR missed - also like a 'I told you so@

The boos were very much uncalled for towards CKR and Murphy.

Regarding the defence, We are still very suspect at the back. Lucky for us, Rhodes and Austin aside no one in this division can score. My biggest gripe is this standing off people, every team we have played have been in our faces yet we stand off and let them have the ball. Due to the horrific referees perhaps but we still shouldnt be giving so much space

[Salgado Is A Hero]

Must be a shocker for you that. You've spent last couple of months saying he was a liability. You and many others.

Last time I checked, players of the calibre of Van Persie and Aguero, or even Danny Graham and Odemwingie, weren't in this division.

We also have someone in charge who looks to have actually spent some time in training sorting out our defence.

Apparently Hanley has been playing well recently....."must be a shocker for you that".

Anyway, back-to-back clean sheets.....looks like we have had some monumental results already this season.

[Amo]

Two wins and two clean sheets (albeit against two lesser sides). Can't ask for much more than that. Black's starting to do a steady job while Shebby has his finger up his own arse.

[Stuart]

Phew!

Difficult to watch for large periods today. Black continues his night-watchman role. Lets hope we get a cultured batsman in soon...

[Salgado Is A Hero]

Apparently

kazim has missed 6 out of his 11.

rhodes has missed one out of 15

[Hasta]

A long drawn-out win which keeps us within touching distance of the top. The league looks quite promising now which wouldn't have been the case if we had dropped 3-6 pts this week. A few obvious positives for me were:-

We obviously have people who can turn games from the bench. Rochina has done it previously and Gomes seemed to spark us into life today.

The defence looked very solid again albeit against another poor forward line (which is a positive in itself). Dann and Givet I always though were good enough at this level but Hanley has proved my doubts wrong over the last two games.

Whenever Rhodes gets the ball at his feet around the box you expect him to get the shot away, He won the penalty doing it then won the game doing it.

Whilst only a brief cameo, I thought Murphy actually did well for the 4 minutes he was on the pitch. At least he looked to move the ball forward rather than sideways/backwards.

However two things bugged me. Firstly the obvious negative tactics. All second half you felt that Watford could be breached if we got enough pressue on and enough men forward. However time and time again Rhodes was isolated. Even when he had support it was limited. A couple of times in the second half we actually managed to win some headers and get a decent knock down (Rhodes and Dann won the headers) but there was only 1 player close by surrounded by 3 or 4 yellow shirts. I'm not wanting to be gung-ho but at times you have to commit men forward. Sometimes I wonder if Black thinks the midfield centre is so weak he has to keep numbers in there.

Secondly, CKR. Let's forget the moments before and during the penalty miss. His attitude as a team player is suspect. He shoots from bizarre angles looking for the spectacular far too often. However today I felt his workrate and attitude seemed to seriously increase after he missed the penalty when he became a handful. Let's have that for 90 minutes please next time Colin.

[Sparky Marky]

Last time I checked, players of the calibre of Van Persie and Aguero, or even Danny Graham and Odemwingie, weren't in this division.

We also have someone in charge who looks to have actually spent some time in training sorting out our defence.

Apparently Hanley has been playing well recently....."must be a shocker for you that".

Anyway, back-to-back clean sheets.....looks like we have had some monumental results already this season.

I believe we were in this division in September when you said that.

Hanley is and always will be shyte.

[Salgado Is A Hero]

Was it after the Leicester game when he almost cost us the points?

Even if a 20 year old defender was "shyte" there would be plenty of time for him to improve as most defenders reach their peak 10 years from his age now.

[pick32]

Don't get the negativity and talking about how it was a flat game, we camped in ther half, deserved win an probably the best organised we have been this season.

[Bundesburn]

Judging from comments, Rhodes' finish was first class?

I reckon CKR might be getting a b0ll0cking and rightly so. You only ever do that if you're going to score. That record of penalties he has is atrocious for a forward.

Such a shame about Lowe, sounds like he'd been making serious headway over the last few games.

Not that I've seen a match whilst Black is in charge, if there's been a remarkable improvement over this short period of time, it makes waiting for whoever is employed next less worrying. Would be great for a manager to come in and have a squad that was close to full fitness and on a bit of form.

[ABBEY]

Don't get the negativity and talking about how it was a flat game, we camped in ther half, deserved win an probably the best organised we have been this season.

Because it was boring and we didn't break sweat . If hasn't win and how I'm glad we did we would all be writing how pants it was . Unfit and no passion .

[The Rover of Finland]

Was it deserved or just another poor performance? Rhodes will take the next penalty surely.

[Bundesburn]

Because it was boring and we didn't break sweat . If hasn't win and how I'm glad we did we would all be writing how pants it was . Unfit and no passion .

Still a question mark over fitness, ABBEY?

Has there been any improvement?

It's the one thing I've always wondered about whenever Rovers were on TV last season. How come all the pundits, to whom it was so obvious that Kean was doing a good job in difficult circumstances, couldn't identify the total lack of fitness in the squad? It was there for all to see!

Disappointing that it hasn't improved, but it does take time, I think.

[grizfoot]

That was the most organised I've seen Rovers in a long-time. Granted the game was pretty turgid and Watford looked mediocre to say the least. But I'd never thought I'd say myself saying we looked solid at the back with Haney and Dann in there, but we did. Dann was fantastic today as well, I've been one of his many critics but today he put in by far his best performance in a Rovers shirt and deserved his first ever Man of the Match award

The formation 4-2-3-1 (or 4-5-1 if you like) meant that Rhodes was terribly isolated at times and it was only when we switched to two upfront and brought on Nuno Gomes that we really started to look threatening. Rhodes won the penalty and clearly went to pick up the ball and then CKR clearly came along and snatched the ball out of his hands. The two had a lengthy discussion before finally Rhodes stepped aside and CKR slipped and missed the penalty. You do look a right plonker when you steal a penalty off someone like that and then miss.

The last ten minutes we where thoroughly on top and you always felt there was a chance for us to nick a winner. That proved the case has the ball was eventually bumbled into the box where Rhodes showed great calm and composure to work a position to get a clean shot off. Fairly dire game but another three points and another clean sheet.

[den]

Absolute tripe. The standard of football in this league is abysmal.

Sat in the riverside today, first time since I was yards away from being totally taken out by a falling metal girder. Brought back memories of the great ronnie Clayton, Mike England, Bryan Douglas, Andy McEvoy and just a thought too for John Connelly. Memories too of the best rovers display I've ever seen - beating Spurs 7-2.

Oh how we've fallen. There was nothing to see today, not one individual player worth watching. To think of the players we've had in recent years as well - and virtually every one of them sold with the blessing of some of our fans.

I can't see what any new manager can do with the present squad, that Black's not currently trying. There's no flair, no pace, no threat. Just a lot of lads trying their best but with the best will in the world, nowhere near the quality of those before them.